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A Best Practice Guide for implementing Liberal Arts and Sciences at European Higher Education Institutions, offered to you by EPICUR European University Alliance

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Language of Instruction

What should be the program's primary language of instruction?
Considerations
Many of the LAS programmes in Europe are specifically targeting an international population with the aim of increasing intercultural awareness, communication skills and citizenship skills. These programmes are usually taught in English and they turn out to be attractive especially to students who are considering an international career. There are also programmes that focus mainly on the home population, teaching in the national language. These will have less focus on global citizenship, and more on national or local citizenship like many of the LAS programmes in the USA traditionally do.
Approaches taken by EPICUR partner institutions
Source: https://www.ucf.uni-freiburg.de/liberal-arts-and-sciences 
Language of instruction is English. Students who do not speak German must learn German up to the A2 level (CEFR) as part of their LAS program.
Source: Study and Exam Regulations
  1. Courses are conducted in English unless otherwise stated in the course catalogue. Courses that are part of specialization studies or elective modules and may also be conducted in another language.
  2. The language of the coursework and examinations should principally be the same as the language of instruction of the respective course. With the prior consent of the lecturer of the respective course or the examiner, coursework and examinations can also be conducted in another language, provided that the proper conduction of the examination is guaranteed, and in particular that it is guaranteed that the instructor has sufficient language capabilities to be able to assess the subject-specific material in the other language. Clause 2 respectively applies to pass/fail assessments
By the end of the fourth program semester, students must take a language test to demonstrate that they have acquired the language skills specified in the following:
  1. Students who speak German as their native language must possess at least level C1 English language skills according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, as well as at least level A2 skills in another modern foreign language according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or basic skills in an ancient foreign language.
  2. Students who speak English as their native language must possess at least level A2 German language skills according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, as well as at least.
LAS at AMU has two groups with instruction both in Polish and English. This arrangement achieves multiple goals:
  1. honours obligations of AMU towards the Polish society and allows propagation of the concept of Liberal Arts in the Polish intellectual sphere (Polish group)
  2. Allows Polish candidates with varying language proficiency to join the program – depending on their skills, they can join the English group or the Polish one and work there to improve their competencies
  3. Allows admission of students from other Slavic countries, e.g. Belarus and Ukraine (Polish group)
  4. Allows for integration with other LAS programs in EPICUR and admission of international students (English)
The future of that arrangement will be discussed during the upcoming revision of the program.
LAS students may attempt to participate in classes of other languages offered by AMU, but there is no possibility to make such classes count as a part of their LAS curricula.
Due to national legislation, each student in a BA program has to take a B2 level exam in a foreign language (in the case of LAS – English). However, given the exposure to English-medium content in the AMU-LAS-Bachelor, the actual level of graduates’ language proficiency is estimated at C1.
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Last edited: 28. Oct 2022, 12:22, [sr1149@uni-freiburg.de]